Dallas, Texas 09/19/2013 (Financialstrend) – A drug discovery and development biopharmaceutical with focus on oncology and hematology, Astex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTX) develops therapeutic molecules using Pyramid – its fragment based drug discovery platform. The company’s product portfolio includes Dacogen alongside number of development stage molecules including SGI-110 (Clinical Trial Phase I/II), AT13387 (Phase II), AT7519 (Phase II), AT9283 (Phase II) and Amuvatinib (Phase I). Additionally, the company is also engaged in development of certain other therapeutics together with its partners. The stock is surged almost 200% year to date with gain of over $5.60 per share. Its 52-week range is between $2.14 and $9.39. The stock is currently trading around $8.50. Astex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTX)’s market capitalization is over $811 million.
Big Pharma gets much hype. But the question is can investors make bigger gain from Little Pharma? And anwer to that question is in affirmative. As there isn’t any described criteria to determine which companies should be considered as Little Pharma, It seems reasonable, to include any drug maker with a market cap between $300 million and $2 billion. As the market caps of Big Pharma companies are really large.
Astex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTX) with the market cap of approximately $812 million falls under the category of Little Pharma. Recently, a major part of the company’s rise came as a result of rumor that the company would be acquired and also following confirmation of a buyout. Certainly, Big Pharma companies can also be bought, but as those deals are less common and move the shares up much less than they can affect smaller company.
This indicates that, what maybe the most significant advantage is for Little Pharma. Any worthy development, whether it’s a buyout speculation, optimistic clinical outcomes, or regulatory approval, can affect substantially more on the stock of a small company than it does impact a bigger one.